I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

I learned to embroider when I was a kid, when everyone was really into cross stitch (remember the '80s?). Eventually, I migrated to surface embroidery, teaching myself with whatever I could get my hands on...read more

Lavender Honey & Other Little Things: It’s Out!

It’s a fun “little” book (that isn’t so little…) This is what it’s all about:

As I mentioned in my sneak peek, the book is all about making. It’s about making four different embroidered little things: a needlebook, a small scissor fob (or ornament), scissor pulls or magnets (using covered button forms), and a pin keep (or large ornament).

There are five designs in the book, and each of the five designs can be finished the four ways mentioned above, for a total of 20 possible projects.

The book begins with the Lavender Honey needlebook. The stitcher is taken step by step through embroidering it and finishing it. Then, each of the other three finishes are addressed step-by-step as well.

Clear, large photos help you through the whole embroidery and finishing process, making the projects accessible to beginners and beyond.

Large photos of all the finished projects are featured throughout the book, too, so that you know what you’re aiming for in the finished project.

While the book is definitely about embroidered projects, it’s really more about finishing – how to turn your embroidery projects into something – something little, compact, neat, tidy, pretty, and fun!

If you’ve never done finish work before or made your embroidery into anything specific, Lavender Honey & Other Little Things will teach you how!

The other four projects in the book include A Sheep on a Sunny Hill, Wee Bunny, The Happy Hedgehog, and Sunflower.

For these subsequent projects, you’ll find a patterns page, materials list, suggested substitutions, and a stitch placement guide and order of stitching.

There are suggested alternative designs for the backs of some of the Little Things, too – and these can be mixed and matched on any of the projects.

In the back of the book, you’ll find a Stitch Index with step-by-step photo instructions for all the stitches used in the Little Things featured in the book.

The stitches are demonstrated with clear photos and text, and are accompanied by helpful tips and links to other instructive articles and video tutorials online.

There’s a section in the book on designing your own Little Things, too, and the book ends with a Resource Page that lists various places you can find the supplies I used in my Little Things.

If you have a stash, though, you don’t necessarily need to buy supplies, and that’s another great thing about these little projects – they are perfect for stash busting and for using up left over scraps of fabrics and partial skeins of thread. Your little things can be made with whatever you have on hand. That means you can get stitching on your own projects right away – and because the projects are small, you can have your own Little Things before the weekend is over!

Aren’t small projects great?

E-Book Delivery

Lavender Honey & Other Little Things is delivered as a PDF via an email download link shortly after purchasing. The file is about 26MB, so it is somewhat large – please be patient while it downloads! As a PDF, it can be read on your desktop, laptop, and on any mobile devices that handle PDFs (open it in iBooks, for example, or save it to your computer and drop it in iTunes under books and sync your iPad).

You can also print Lavender Honey & Other Little Things. You can print the whole book or only the pages you need, you can print in black & white or on “draft” setting if you want to save ink, and if your printer handles it, you can print front and back on the paper. It’s a 90-page book.

If you have any difficulties at all with the download link – whether downloading or receiving the link – don’t worry! Just contact me and I will get the PDF to you an alternate way.

I really, really hope you enjoy this book and these projects. It was heaps of fun to develop! And I hope it’s just as much fun for you to make the things in it!

Thanks a bunch, Carol-Anne! I hope you enjoy it! That’s pretty much how the book came about – I was tired of stitching up so many little samples of things and doing nothing with them. Now I have needlebooks coming out of my ears….!

G’day Mary,
Hot off the press and straight into my excited little hands! Done! Wonderful, and congratulations on a special effort that’s much appreciated. I have drooled over your little things from the start.
Thank you, and cheers, Kath.

Just ordered my book and flipped through the pages…. This is a great book Mary! The projects are very cute! I really like that this is an ebook, affordable, and most importantly the projects are do able. Thank you! Ren

Woo Hoo, Mary! What a great project book! So practical, so helpful, so useful. I’ve loved your classes, and this looks like more of the same. Super idea! Congratulations! I hope you have a giant celebration today. 😀

Just purchased a copy and browsed quickly through it, it looks amazing as usual and very cheap, I don’t know how you manage to sell it at such a low price with all that work involved, congratulations Mary wonderful can’t wait to start now my Guardian Angel is finished.

Mary, I just ordered my e-book! Like many, I’ve been awaiting these adorable creatures and their little worlds for a long time, and am just delighted to be able to order the book. It’s a particular joy for me, as 2 bad thumbs just do not allow me to pursue large projects any more.

I saw your Facebook post late last night and couldn’t wait until morning so I ordered and downloaded it immediately! Mary, there is nothing I have seen that compares with the instructional value you have created here. It is beautifully illustrated and very inspirational with many great designs and encouragement to venture out on our own and create our own designs. Thank you for your very thoughtful work and your willingness to share this with all of us. Everyone should order this very valuable resource! You’ll be so glad you did!

Mary, thank you for all your hard work and dedication. I am thrilled to have Lavender Honey…I am seeing Christmas presents and know my family and friends will love the little projects for gifts. But not as much as I will love making them.

Mary I really love your 4 little ebooks. They are really so easy to follow. I don’t think I will ever make all the little Lavender and Honey projects but I know I will make the sheep and hedgehog.
I have to ask if you ever might think you could do a booklet of the black fish? I have always liked that one. I am niether a fish or black work lover but that has taken my fancy. I would give a go as I have a friend who loves both, plus cats.

Thanks again Mary for your ebooks and terrific website. I do enjoy all and reading the comments. I found the facebook, left a couple of messages but I think I prefer this one.

Dear Mary, I purchased the e-book today and am THRILLED with it. I’ve gone back and visited it twice today (company is coming, so at this point, I’m having to be content with oogling). Just had to write and tell you that the instructions are great, the photos are fabulous, and the designs fantastic (I’m a professional editor, so I know a good book when I see one!). I hope this is one of many more. I’m always so busy with work that I don’t have large blocks of time to devote to my creative life. Thank you for publishing a beautiful and practical book that meets all those creative needs. Sending best regards, Cate

Oooooh Mary, I love this ebook!! I’ve been waiting, since every once in a while you would mention it, and I plan to do a pile of Little Things for Christmas gifts. I just finished (ok, not quite finished, but enough to be useful) a baldachin, or processional canopy, for my church so I have time for smaller stuff. The canopy was embellished using patterns from your ecclesial patterns book, of course! Lots of gold work, almost entirely couched gold work , with a bit of red thrown in for pop! and punch! I’ve put in eyelets before, but not grommets, so that was a satisfying thing to learn, too. OK, on to the little things! Thanks Mary, so many of us are indebted to you for sharing your gifts with us. Peace be with you and those you love!

A scissor fob is a little decorative ornament you loop on your scissor handles. Besides being decorative, it can serve a couple purposes: 1. It makes your scissors easier to find among your own stuff; 2. It makes it easy to identify your scissors when you’re working with a group. Scissor pulls are basically a retractable lanyard (a badge pull) that you clip on a pocket or collar or your neckline of your shirt or your button placket – or wherever you can clip it, and then you attach your scissors to it, so that they are hanging right on you and you don’t have to fumble about for them. These are actually really handy – I use scissor pulls all the time when I’m sitting down for a long stitching session. In any case, you can use the instructions for more than just fobs and pulls. The fob finish actually makes a perfect small ornament, so if you make Christmas ornaments or anything of the like, the finish can be used that way. Same with the pin keep – it would make a slightly larger ornament. So, there you have it! Hope that helps clarify! – MC

Just got mine too – had to wait until I got back from vacation. Can’t wait to stitch a few of these – they are soooooo cute. I haven’t done any free hand embroidery for a long long while but these little things are just the trick to get back to it. I have many WIPs going but what’s one more, or two? :O) Thanks!!

To anyone who’s looking for fabric for these, I ordered the Ethereal Blue and the Fog Green from fabrics-store.com. They specialize in affordable linen. The Ethereal Blue is a good match for the sky blue in Mary’s pictures, and the Fog Green is paler than the green she uses for the hedgehog. It was the closest available, and I figure it will evoke the misty English weather… But be forewarned — you must order a minimum of 1 yd.

I think the fabric sample pack from Wool & Hoop with the various colors of linen (from Ulster linen company) is a better bet. You get a whole array of colors in a size that is just right for the Little Things, and the fabric is a little heavier in weight than the stuff at fabric-store.com. I ordered some linen swatches at fabric-store.com and some small grab-bag pieces of their various linens, and was really disappointed in the quality of the colored linens – they are very flimsy, and the threads are so sparse that they don’t support surface stitches all that well. At Wool & Hoop, you can also order smaller cuts than a yard, if you want, and the prices are comparable. – MC

Just recently finished the needlebook and I’m really pleased with the result! I embroidered a monogram “L” on the front and sent it to an Australian pen pal. I haven’t heard from her yet, but hope she likes it. I would post a picture of it, but can’t seem to figure out how. (I’ve registered, but seems like I’m still “inactive.”)

Anyway, I really enjoyed making the needlebook–it’s so unique and really charming. Look forward to some more projects from LH before Christmas for gifts.

I have been looking in all the wrong places for you! I was looking for a simple snowflake pattern on Google and your site popped up.
My winter white cashmere shawl has little moth holes, and I thought by embellishing it with snowflakes I could disguise the holes.
I like your site. Thank you.
Vivian

Mary, I am trying to find the little 2 – 3 inch red, green, white plastic frames often used in cross stitch to make Christmas ornaments for hanging on the tree. I am having difficulty find them. Please let me know if there is a place I can purchase these frames in quantities packs of 10 to 20 per pack. I just need the blank frames, no kits.
Thanks,
Bonnie

Well, polyfil is the most common filler. How you actually do the finishing, etc., is up to you – I’m sure you can find plenty of pillow-making tutorials online, and I’d imagine that, if you just scale them down, you can apply the same concepts to little pillows.